about things and takes the machine out of Moore's office at the station. My guess is he matched the keys to the letter. From that point, it wouldn't be difficult to figure out the letter came from either Moore or somebody in the BANG squad. My guess is that Chastain interviewed them this week and concluded they hadn't done it. The letter was typed by Moore."
Irving didn't confirm any of it but didn't have to. Bosch knew. It all fit.
"Moore had a good plan, Chief. He played us like cheater's solitaire. He knew every card in the deck before it was turned over."
"Except for one," Irving said. "You. He didn't think you'd come looking."
Bosch didn't reply. He looked over at Sylvia again. She was innocent. And she would be safe. He noticed Irving turn his gaze on her, too.
"She's clear," Bosch said. "You know it. I know it. If you make trouble for her, I'll make trouble for you."
It wasn't a threat. It was an offer. A deal. Irving considered it a moment and nodded his head once. A blunt agreement.
"Did you speak to him down there, Bosch?"
Harry knew he meant Moore and he knew he couldn't answer.
"What did you do down there?"
After a few moments of silence Irving turned and walked as upright as a Nazi back to the rows of chairs holding the VIPs and top brass of the department. He took a seat his adjutant had been saving in the row behind Sylvia Moore. He never looked back at Bosch once.
Thirty-Four
THROUGH THE ENTIRE SERVICE BOSCH HAD watched her from his position next to the oak tree. Sylvia Moore rarely raised her head, even to watch the line of cadets fire blanks into the sky or when the air squad flew over, the helicopters arranged in the missing-man formation. One time he thought she glanced over at him, or at least in his direction, but he couldn't be sure. He thought of her as being stoic. And he thought of her as being beautiful.
When it was over and the casket was in the hole and the people were moving away, she stayed seated and Bosch saw her wave away an offer from Irving to be escorted back to the limousine. The assistant chief sauntered off, smoothing his collar against his neck. Finally, when the area around the burial site was clear, she stood up, glanced once down into the hole, and then started walking toward Bosch. Her steps were punctuated by the slamming of car doors all across the cemetery. She took the sunglasses off as she came.
"You took my advice," she said.
This immediately confused him. He looked down at his clothes and then back at her. What advice? She read him and answered.
"The black ice, remember? You have to be careful. You're here, so I assume you were."
"Yes, I was careful."
He saw that her eyes were very clear and she seemed even stronger than the last time they had encountered each other. They were eyes that would not forget a kindness. Or a slight.
"I know there is more than what they have told me. Maybe you will tell me sometime?"
He nodded and she nodded. There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other that was neither long or short. It seemed to Bosch to be a perfect moment. The wind gusted and broke the spell. Some of her hair broke loose from the barrette and she pushed it back with her hand.
"I would like that," she said.
"Whenever you want," he said. "Maybe you'll tell me a few things, too."
"Such as?"
"That picture that was missing from the picture frame. You knew what it was, but you didn't tell me."
She smiled as if to say he had focused his attention on something unnecessary and trivial.
"It was just a picture of him and his friend from the barrio. There were other pictures in the bag."
"It was important but you didn't say anything."
She looked down at the grass.
"I just didn't want to talk or think about it anymore."
"But you did, didn't you?"
"Of course. That's what happens. The things you don't want to know or remember or think about come back to haunt you."
They were quiet for a moment.
"You know, don't you?" he finally said.
"That that wasn't my husband buried there? I had an idea, yes. I knew there was more than what people were telling me. Not you, especially. The others."
He nodded and the silence grew long but not uncomfortable. She turned slightly and looked over at the